News in Brief: A National Roundup

NEA Salary Survey Puts Teacher Pay at $44,299

California, Connecticut, and New York posted the highest average
annual teacher salaries in the nation during the last school year,
while South Dakota, North Dakota, and Mississippi had the lowest,
according to new figures from the National Education Association.

The national average annual salary was $44,299, though the average
in 36 states fell below that, the report says.

The 2.5 million-member union estimated that total revenues for
education in 2001-02 increased by 4.3 percent over the previous school
year, or 1.6 percent less than the nation's rate of economic growth.
Teachers' salaries also grew more slowly than the economy, the report
says.

—Bess Keller

L.A. Officials Pledge To Improve High School

Officials in the Los Angeles school district are beefing up security
at a large high school after teachers at the school contended that
violence, drugs, and sex among students had rendered the campus "out of
control."

In a Nov. 7 letter to their union, one or more unnamed teachers at
George Washington Preparatory High School said students there were
robbed and beaten daily. They also gamble, drink, take drugs, and have
sex in school buildings, the letter said, ending with the sentence:
"Please help us."

After receiving the letter, leaders of United Teachers-Los Angeles
sent officials to the campus to interview teachers. They witnessed
several fights, established through interviews that "the thrust" of the
letter was accurate, and asked Superintendent Roy Romer for help, said
union President John Perez.

William Elkins, the director of school services for high schools in
the subdistrict that includes Washington Prep, said many of the
allegations in the letter were "exaggerated." But he acknowledged that
the school of 3,800 students, in one of Los Angeles' most embattled
neighborhoods, needs better security and discipline, and said that
officials are taking steps to improve both.

By early this month, 10 security staffers will be added and a
wrought-iron fence completed to keep outsiders from causing trouble on
campus, Mr. Elkins said. Two key administrative vacancies have
contributed to oversights in security and discipline, he said, and
those positions have been filled.

As for the letter's descriptions of trouble being exaggerated, Mr.
Perez said: "I respectfully disagree."

—Catherine Gewertz

La. Governor Settles Suit Over Religious Activities

Gov. Mike Foster of Louisiana has settled a lawsuit that challenged
the use of state money for religious activities by grant recipients in
the governor's abstinence-only sex education program.

The settlement last month calls for the governor's office to closely
monitor all activities financed by the abstinence program. Funding
recipients will submit monthly reporting forms certifying that no
activities or materials supported by state aid include religious
content. Recipients found to be promoting religion will have to correct
the violation promptly or face removal from the state program.

In its lawsuit, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana
cited several examples of recipients' use of the money for religious
activities. A theater group used $29,500 in program money to put on
skits at schools featuring a character named "Bible Guy" who promoted
abstinence. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lafayette used $46,000 in
state funds to operate a "chastity" program called "God's Gift of
Life," the suit said.

A federal district judge in New Orleans issued a preliminary
injunction on July 25 barring the abstinence program from paying for
religious activities. The office of Gov. Foster, a Republican, had
appealed that action, but the settlement will bring the case to a
close.

—Mark Walsh

School Board President Gets Ticket for Dumping Manure

The president of a Colorado school board was cited for littering
after he dumped a bucket of horse manure in the office of his hometown
newspaper.

Samuel A. Mitchek, 39, the president of the board in the 330-student
Cheyenne County district on the eastern edge of the state, spread the
dung at the office of the Range Leader in Cheyenne Wells after
he read stories about the previous night's school board meeting.

"It was a protest against the biased reporting of information," said
Gaila J. Mitchek, Mr. Mitchek's wife, who said he received a ticket for
littering after the Nov. 20 incident.

The newspaper said that Mr. Mitchek had violated school board policy
by denying members of the community the right to make public comments
on Nov. 19. A separate article by one of the board's critics who had
sought to speak at the meeting listed complaints of a newly formed
dissident group.

Mr. Mitchek was angry, his wife said, because the newspaper hadn't
mentioned that he told the critics that their newly formed group hadn't
informed school officials that its leaders wanted to speak.

School board policy requires 24-hour notice for organized groups,
the newspaper said. But it added that members of the group had
requested to speak as individuals, who aren't required to give
notice.

—David J. Hoff

Congressmen Fault Group For Allowing Gay Mentors

Eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives have criticized
the national Big Brothers Big Sisters of America organization, saying
one of its school-based mentoring programs allows homosexuals to work
with students without their parents' knowledge.

The Nov. 19 letter was sent to President Bush, the honorary chairman
of the Philadelphia-based organization, by Republican congressmen,
including Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado. It says that Big Brothers Big
Sisters should abandon a policy that requires its U.S. affiliates to
allow gay people to participate in the groups' school-based mentoring
programs without specific consent from students' parents.

The program serves about 70,000 public school students, the letter
says, and parents give permission for their children to participate.
The letter says parents, however, are not be specifically informed if
their children are matched with gay mentors.

Big Brothers Big Sisters said in a statement issued in response to
the letter that its permission form provides a section in which parents
can express preferences about a volunteer's characteristics, including
sexual orientation. Big Brothers Big Sisters honors those preferences,
the statement says.

—Michelle R. Davis

Wichita District to End Its Contract With Edison

The Wichita, Kan., school board voted last week to cut its remaining
ties with Edison Schools Inc.

The 49,000-student district was one of the first to hire the
for-profit school-management company, which took over Dodge Elementary
School in 1995 and Jardine Middle School in 1996. Next July, those
schools will revert to district management.

The school board voted 6-1 on Nov. 25 to end the management contract
with Edison. The board cited a recommendation of Superintendent Winston
Brooks, who has said the district can run the schools just as well as
the company can, but at a savings of $500,000 a year. Last January, the
Wichita board voted to take back two other Edison-run schools.

Edison, based in New York City, said that it was losing money on the
contract, and that its end would not affect the company's forecast to
turn profitable by its fiscal fourth quarter next spring.

Separately, Edison's share price has been trading above $1 in the
past two weeks, staving off the company's threatened "delisting" by the
NASDAQ stock market. A series of company press releases in recent weeks
about the potential for business growth in the summer school,
after-school, and tutoring markets helped boost the share price from an
all-time low of 14 cents on Oct. 10 to a close of $1.63 a share on Nov.
26.

"They did what they had to do," said Jeffrey Silber, who follows
Edison for Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co., a New York City-based
investment bank. "This doesn't mean the company is completely out of
the woods, but they have sidestepped a potential land mine."

—Mark Walsh

Minn. Testing Lawsuit Settled

Some 8,000 Minnesota students who were mistakenly told they had
failed a state graduation exam could receive a total of up to $7
million under a legal settlement announced last week.

Individual settlements in the class action over a testing
contractor's error will range from a few hundred dollars, for freshmen
and sophomores who incurred tutoring costs and other expenses because
they had to take the exam again, to as much as $16,000 for seniors who
were denied high school diplomas.

Almost all of the settlements will be for less than $1,000,
according to Lindsay G. Arthur Jr., the Minneapolis lawyer who
represented NCS Pearson, the company that scored the exams that were
given in 2000.

Only five or six plaintiffs will receive the maximum settlement, Mr.
Arthur estimated.

In 2000, NCS Pearson, a unit of the London-based Pearson LLC, used
the incorrect answer sheet when scoring the mathematics section of the
statewide exam that is required to earn a diploma in the state. The
test also includes reading and writing sections. ("Minn. Extends Testing Contract
Despite Scoring Mistakes," Sept. 6, 2000.)

Most of the students affected by the error were underclassmen who
took the exam but still had several chances to pass it before senior
year, Mr. Arthur said. They will be compensated for books they bought,
wages they lost, and other financial losses directly related to NCS
Pearson's mistake, he said.

A Minnesota state judge has given preliminary approval for the
settlement, and a hearing to formally close the case is scheduled for
next year. All students eligible for settlements will likely be
compensated by next spring, Mr. Arthur said.

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